Name Tim Webb
Title Artistic Director
Organisation Oily Cart
How long in present post?
Claire de Loon, Max Reinhardt and I started the company 22 years ago
t: 020 8672 6329 e: tim@oilycart.org.uk
What does your organisation do?
We’re a theatre company specialising in highly interactive, multi-sensory work for two distinct audiences: children from 6 months to 6 years, and also young people with Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities (PMLD).
What does your job involve?
I’m responsible for the company’s strategy, which involves plenty of research and development. We pioneered performance in swimming pools for people with PMLD and our latest work for them involves trampolines and digital video. In 2003 our Jumpin’Beans piece successfully involved children as young as six months and their families for the first time. I write and direct approximately two new productions each year.
Who did you previously work for?
- I’ve been an actor and a writer for Theatre in Education companies in Glasgow and Greenwich
- I worked with the legendary Marcel Steiner in his Smallest Theatre In The World
- I was assistant director to Peter Cheeseman at the New Vic in North Staffordshire.
What do you enjoy most about your present post?
Working with a brilliant team to create ground-breaking work for two of the most challenging and delightful audiences.
What do you find most difficult in your present post?
At the moment it’s the real estate question; we’re seeking the funding to make our base truly accessible.
What is your career ambition?
To continue making innovative theatre, connecting more and more with our audiences and leave the company in the best shape to carry on when I finally keel over.
Who has influenced your career to date the most?
Claire de Loon, Max Reinhardt, Sir Geoffrey Pecker, a hundred other Oilies, and Mr. Punch.
If you could have done any job, what would it be?
Played with Miles Davis.
If you had three wishes for the future of the arts, what would they be?
- Much wider acknowledgement of the potential of performers with learning disabilities
- Improved communication between the funders and the funded
- For society to start to discover the same kind of value in children’s theatre that it has found in children’s literature.